Despite many years of debate, understanding digital change for established companies remains a difficult task. People who lead the digital transformation are at a crossroads and face competing requirements from marketing, IT sales, operations, and even sales in the absence of a clear understanding that the wrong people get placed in charge, using inadequate resources, and incorrect KPIs which set the digital transformation plan up to fail.
The trick to sift through the fog is recognizing that digital transformation isn’t an individual thing but a multi-faceted process with different goals based on industry and maturity as we needed to alter our understanding of computers following their introduction as a device that could be used to perform only a few tasks on the edges of an organization, to one that can perform a variety of functions in a variety of ways. Hence, it’s time to shift our understanding of digital transformation. We must move away not as a singular concept but recognize that digital transformation is a broad term that means various things for different sections of an organization. Doing this can identify the kind of digital transformation you’re discussing and then prepare in line with the changes you want to make.
Based on our research on businesses going through digitization, we present an uncomplicated framework to cut the clutter and competing demands. The framework defines the four main pillars of digital transformation that we observe today: IT uplift and the digitization of operations, digital marketing, and digital business. Each of these is integral to the majority of companies on the journey of digital transformation. Suppose you don’t know the differences between them. In that case, it’s challenging to figure out what you should do next or what to do with the money -the tools, resources objectives, C-Suite sponsors, and KPIs needed to succeed are different for each situation. Knowing the differences in requirements can help you make informed choices and clearly define your way forward.
The right pillar place to start your company depends on your specific situation, requirements, and digital maturity. Most companies begin to tackle the first pillars we discuss at the beginning of their journey to digital transformation, but as they get older, they will continue to further posts. Here are the four pillars and the steps you can invest in the right way to ensure your success.
The Four Pillars

IT boosts many businesses. It is essentially an opportunity to use the budget allotted towards “digital initiatives” to modernize communication and IT systems within your company. Digital transformation begins by upgrading IT infrastructure within the business and mobility infrastructures, data lakes, and the cloud. When it is completed, the IT upgrade gives your business the latest tools to improve efficiency for employees, reduce maintenance costs for IT, and greater satisfaction among employees.
Certain companies are already into this process, but many others have questions about how to improve their digital infrastructure. It is usually the first step of the journey to digital. It takes an IT architect and time yet promises modern platforms and more efficient tools to meet customers’ needs with lower costs of maintenance. However, investments are still needed for older digital businesses to implement modern tools like artificial intelligence.
Typically, usually CIO or CTO is the person who should be in charge of this aspect of digital transformation. The key indicators of success are access to the latest tools, lower maintenance costs, higher satisfaction of employees, and improved business performance. To support this, IDC research shows that companies implementing the process of ERP moved to the cloud as part of the digital transformation program before the outbreak of COVID-19 did better than those that did not.
Digitizing operations A third crucial element of digital transformation is typically addressed earlier in the journey to digital transformation. Digital transformation is improving, simplifying, and streamlining existing processes. The objective here is to use digital tools, such as the most advanced technologies like AI 5G, AI IoT, and 5G to speed up business growth.
It could be replacing analog processes with digital ones in its simplest form. Sometimes, it’s about changing the system’s design to accommodate the requirements of today’s customers. For instance, when PayPal offered payments via email, they needed a lot of time to make sure that they complied with regulatory requirements. However, facilitating the immediate payment required in the current market requires rethinking the structure of PayPal by combining the previously separate divisions for compliance and expenses into one organization. This is not just about changing analog processes to digital ones. It’s about redesigning the company and the digital strategies to serve the customers better.
Digitalizing operations is an essential aspect of digital transformation, in that in the absence of it, your organization will be out of reach by more efficient employees. An organization may start its journey towards digital transformation by digitizing its processes, and then as it develops, it will redesign processes completely. As companies redesign their operations, they begin to explore more possibilities for transformation. For instance, when a European retailer made changes to its platform to better serve customers better, it realized that it could also sell different products of other retailers through its upgraded eCommerce platform as well as automated logistics, allowing the retailer to build an entire ecosystem of goods and services that third-party sellers to provide its customers.
Due to the necessity to know how the business operates, digital operations generally perform better when supervised by the COO or CFO. It requires time and resources; however, as determined through the central KPIs, the advantages include time-saving money and people to tackle business issues and satisfy customers.
Digital Marketing If you’re searching for ways to gain clients, increase brand recognition and profile clients, or even sell your products online, you’re following the pillar of digital marketing. This pillar differs from other pillars due to its emphasis on using digital tools that allow you to interact with and market to customers. It is not surprising that it requires different resources like investing in capturing accurate data, using digital tools, including artificial intelligence to help understand customers and their needs, and a presence across all channels.
Many retailers across the world use the digital channel, AI, and prescriptive analytics to gain access to customers and prospects and build digital marketplaces, viral marketing campaigns, and geo-targeting campaigns. Businesses also employ artificial intelligence to recognize and respond to critical customer behavior, such as identifying customers who are likely to abandon your company and intervening before leaving.
Typically the CMO is the one who initiates this process and should concentrate on KPIs like ROI on marketing investment as well as reducing costs for customer acquisition and the generation of large amounts of data that could be used to attract new customers and improve the service to existing customers.
Digital technology presents a variety of new opportunities for established businesses. To take advantage of these opportunities, some of which could be very disruptive, requires both the capabilities to innovate and the digital for testing and pivoting to new avenues of growth. Digital technology could provide an opportunity to develop innovative business strategies, create new offerings and products, and even join forces with a vast ecosystem to generate new growth opportunities.
The CEO, or the head of sales, oversees these initiatives due to the necessity for agility, investments, and, most importantly, an experienced team that can run experiments to verify the business opportunity. The reward is new revenue sources and profit. However, the KPIs are more complex and typically measure unit economics that you have created to solve an important customer issue and make profits. Many companies have these opportunities at their disposal, but capturing them requires more digital maturity than an IT upgrade or digitizing processes.
A large retail bank we looked at was involved in a variety of sectors, including transport (ride-sharing), distribution of content (music and television), e-health, and the retail marketplace, to name just a few. The CEO’s first deputy was responsible for the transformation and built up a team of people who were able to innovate and test and create every new business. In this digital department, executives were also tasked to digitize the entire ecosystem and a separate department that had an obligation to construct and maintain the new ecosystem. The bank examines its capacity to improve customer retention within the primary financial services industry to determine if they are doing well. More importantly, new companies measure how many daily or monthly average customers, engagement levels, and cross-selling possibilities.
The Digital Journey
Everyone who has experienced the benefits of digital transformation has described it as a trip. Digital transformation is slow and involves a series of evolving and sometimes radical actions. As with any process, you must first determine the best path to take. Most companies start with IT uplift and digitalize their operations, then transition to digital marketing and business development. However, all four pillars are crucial to the digital transformation process, and they could occur in a different sequence. The most important thing to be successful is to be clear that digital transformation isn’t just one thing but multiple aspects. The right leader and the right resources and success metrics towards each pillar can make a massive difference to the win.